NASET News Alert

Disability Advocates Threaten to Sue Texas Over Special Education Cap

February 09, 2017

Disability advocates on Monday threatened to sue the Texas Education Agency unless the state permanently ends its special education enrollment benchmark within the next month. The advocates said immediate action was necessary because of the "devastating harm" caused by the benchmark. The state already has suspended and pledged to eventually eliminate the decade-old benchmark, which punished school districts for giving special education services to more than 8.5 percent of students. But the state has angered advocates by not saying when it will permanently end the policy. "The time for action to protect and support Texas's children with disabilities is now," the advocates from the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and Disability Rights Texas wrote in a letter to the Texas Education Agency and Commissioner Mike Morath. Read More